Is there any plans to bring the ring or Sauron into the game?

Just curious.

goblin981 said:

well i dont think we'll ever directly see sauron unless a 1st/2nd age aspect comes out, though i suppose its possible, if we go into mordor....i really hope they dont portray him as an eye in the film though- that was a bit misleading, and i think PJ took the eye at the top of the tower metaphor a bit too directly

as for the ring well again i dont see why not.....we have seen all the ring bearers in the 3rd age- gollum, frodo, bilbo, (well not sam if you want to get really picky) so yeah dont see why not

i think its more likely that we'll see the ring than sauron, it would be a cool card.

The One Ring

objective

exhasut a character to claim the one ring

exhaust the one ring. attatched hero becomes immune to all enemy effects for the rest of the turn

after you exhaust The one ring - reveal the top card of the encounter deck- if that card is an enemy place 1 corruption token on attatched hero

if attatched hero ever has more corruption tokens than their hit points they join the enemy with x threat, attack, defense, and hits points. x is the number of coruption tokens on attatched hero

after attatched hero is destroyed, The one ring goes to the staging area

i thought the one ring was a big enough deal to introduce some new tokens!!

richsabre said:

PS just realised that the back of encounter card show this.....well guess the eye is a given then... ggrrr from tolkiens letters

...in a tale which allows the incarnation of great spirits in a physical and destructible form their power must be far greater when actually physically present. ... Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic

yeah i admit that was a wiki quote but i havnt got the time to find any others, though im 100% postive he had from- even gollum said he had a hand

sorry to make yet another post similar to my balrog one, but in case you hadnt noticed im a big old ignorant purist (see what i did there? that was a preemptive strike against all the stick im gonna get for this post)

PPS (yeah im a scatter brain and this forum software doesnt let you edit after a while)

i guess the hardest part of depicting a 3rd age sauron is we dont really know what he looked like, as there is no clear description- if any (leafing through the books to find one) so yeah, i guess its either go for the eye, or really start being creative with it

also thank you for starting a theme topic in this sea of boromir fuelled discussions (not that theres anything wrong with it!!!) but youve given this bilbo something to talk about

Well, they could always make an enemy called "Sauron in the woods" with the Sauron trait and you just see a bunch of trees in the image. What will matter anyway is that his stats will be something like 50-50-50-50-100.

Frodo presumably has the Ring and that's what's going on with his special power. He avoids damage by putting on the Ring, but the corruption/Sauron's attention drawing = higher Threat.

gatharion said:

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. And it's a great way to simply depict that, thematically and mechanically. But I'm not sure if that's the best way to implement that long-term, because it doesn't really allow for other characters to get a hold of the ring. Certainly, Sam and Bilbo and possibly others (Gollum?) might have reason to hold the ring at times. The problem is that if you make it as an item/objective, then it kind of leaves Frodo's ability hanging out there. I suppose in that case, the ability could represent that he has gained some experience at deflecting damage from himself (despite the ring) but is still considered an enemy and target of Sauron, so each time he avoids harm it strengthens Sauron's resolve (the threat gain).

Grudunza said:

Or you could have text on the One Ring Objective card that says Frodo can't use that power while it is in play and not attached to him.

SiCK_Boy said:

if we ever see sauron it will be another balrog thing going on, where you cant actually attack etc only much more powerful, i think it should have a great deal of effect on threat level, and if FFG ever go down this road - the ring/ current bearer

also it should certainly be the finale of an absolutely epic quest/cycle, so something like The Land of Shadow cycle where you have to scout out mordor.....ahh good times

I'd love to see a Mouth of Sauron, though I think a lot of this is probably too late for the timeline the game is supposed to occupy. I thought the PJ depiction was nice, but I'd love to see what they'd come up with as regards the artwork for him for this game. And such a smarmy, sneaky git deserves some really interesting ability that I currently have no imagination for, given as how my mind is on food. But anyway...

spalanzani said:

given that i am currently eating food i may put my mind to this

Mouth of Sauron

engagement value - 50

threat 7

attack 0

defense 7

hit points 7

players cannot attack mouth of sauron

exhuast a hero and discard the top card of the player deck. if that card is an ally with a cost of 2 or higher discard mouth of sauron

something like that anyways, ive tried to get the whole diplomat thing going, where he cant be killed- unlike the film, but can be told to bugger off back into mordor

richsabre said:

Why can't he be killed? (The true Tolkien Mouth of Sauron)

Also, mechanical-wise, the way it is worded, he will still engage, attack and possibly deal damage! And can be killed in a variety of ways.

(Don't be mad at me)

cordeirooo said:

he's a negotiator, and as such should be treat like one, also correct me if im wrong but im sure i remember a passage where gandalf states no harm should come to him, its been several years since my last re read so could be remembering wrong

as for the words i had a mouth full of pasta so sort of got the wording wrong

basically i meant him to be immune to damage, and doesnt engage- sort of like nameless fear, sort of just to provide threat in the staging area without you being able to do much about it

richsabre said:

Actually, the only thing I know about him is due to Jackson's movies (please, no rock-throwing).
It is common that messengers shouldn't be killed ("Hate the message, not the messenger" right?) and nice to see that in the true-Lore.

Also, a good amount of my creations come from you guys talking, and I believe I'm starting to create some sort of Mouth of Sauron.

So, the 'can't be killed' stuff is actually a 'shouldn't be killed', right? Or there is some nasty consequences for killing him, like he explode in a gruesome acid that stinks and attracts spiders and other gigantic enemies? He possesses some kind of power? Is he immortal? Was he a human (Man)?

Hope you're not overwhelm by the questions.

Instead of "killing" him (I.e., discarding him), shuffle him back into the encounter deck. So he can be avoided or escaped from, but might reappear.

cordeirooo said:

he was a black numerorean - an ancient race of men who were evil, and was learned in magic from sauron, he was the leiutenant of the black tower and intended to rule from isengard if the west fell, he was very powerful, cruel, and in good standing with the dark lord, thought it is said he forgot his real name....check out lotrplaza.com - an excellent tolkien lore forum and search him in- there are many conversations that go into depth....i think he is a very cool character- i mean a living man who is in counsel with sauron- isnt to be sniffed at, the black horse was right, but a helm with no eye pieces was not

not much more is known, there wouldnt have been any bad consequences, gandalf and him sort of have a power stand off where he takes the mithril shirt back and sends him running, and then you know the rest....

also ask away....i looove talking about lotr

There was a thread on here a couple of months back, where someone suggested the possibility of seeing all the Rings, not just the One Ring, and that got me thinking today about how the last Ring of Power was re-captured by Sauron around the time of the game's setting, if my memory serves me right (it was last week when I read the timeline, but I've slept since then) One of the dwarf lords, I think. Anyway, it got me thinking today that maybe we could see in a future AP cycle some reference to that, maybe along the lines of Gandalf or Elrond gets wind of it and sends the fellowship to track this dwarf guy to see if we can save him before Sauron gets to him. Of course, such a quest already has a foregone conclusion, but it could be done along the lines of Massing at Osgiliath, where the final stage of the quest is an escape. Maybe?

Oh, and who'd like to see an Elrond ally along similar lines to Gandalf? "When you play Elrond from your hand, you may look at the top 10 cards of the encounter deck, place one on the bottom of the deck, discard one from play, and rearrange the remaining 8 in any way you wish. Limit once per game" or somesuch?

spalanzani said:

yeah he was thrown into dol guldur and gandalf went in disguise to get the map thats in the hobbit but sauron had taken the ring, so it would sort of be just like escape from dol guldur really

i hope elrond is an hero, id love to see that, another ring bearer

and oh, fun fact to those who hadnt read the books, gandalf was actually a ring bearer though few knew, cirdan gave him it as he foresaw his hardships- one of the elven rings - thats why he says- wielder of the flame of arnor- his ring was a ring of fire - narya - if my mind serves me well.....

That's very interesting, actually! I've still not gotten round to reading The Hobbit

spalanzani said:

ah the hobbit is possibly my favourite, between that and the fellowship- more specificallye first book of the fellowship and the start of the second- moria- the old forest/barrow downs - great times with the four hobbits- im currently going through a phase of re reading it on a loop- yes me=sad

richsabre said:

Thats a great idea for a the ring card. But the ring can only be taken out of the staging are by exhausting a hero that you want to attach it to.

Wheelz said:

also there should be some sort of test of will on whether they go to its calling- so you exhasut, then reveal a an encounter card and compare the willpower to threat- if the threats higher the hero immediatly becomes corrupt and bypasses the corruption tokens and joins the enemy, if the willpowers higher they claim the ring and can use it